National and international professional bodies have developed Codes of Ethics that apply either directly or indirectly to GIS practitioner, at the personal and corporate level. Similarly, codes of conduct are established for government officials, also nationally and internationally. The workshop will investigate the role of ethics at the personal, corporate and government levels in relation to meeting the stated goals for SDIs. Issues like ethical use of public sector information, ethical codes of conduct for GIS/IT professionals in relation to general codes of conduct for government officials and ethics of personal privacy versus government surveillance for personal protection will be addressed.

Legal issues use of data sets and software tools, liability and protection of privacy, distribution and use of spatial data etc. have become an obvious concern in the promotion, efficiency of R & D activities and the ultimate delimitation of the potential of Geographic Information Systems. Legal considerations should be kept in mind before creation and implementation of large projects to avoid exploitations, misuse and also accountability of the product generators. This workshop touches on the rights and legal issues related to GIS in the fi eld of public access, liability, privacy, GIS data as evidence and copyrights.

The emerging challenges of handling GIS projects needs technical skills in defi ning, planning, organizing, executing, instilling team efforts, negotiating, along with problem solving and decision making. Effective data management is essential in controlling liabilities and risks, and also forms a critical component of any project. The aim of this workshop will be exchange of management solutions of projects and bring added value to a client’s requirement by transforming data into the information fundamental to strategic decision making.This workshop is being conducted by Indian Society of Geomatics (ISG).